The present invention relates to a reflector for a vehicular low beam headlight.
The recent trends of the automobile design have been prompting efforts to develop new types of headlights. That is, with the streamlined body shape to satisfy various requirements from, for instance, the body design and aerodynamic characteristics that are related to the automobile styling, headlights need to be constructed so as to accommodate what is called the slant nose, i.e., the reduced front portion of a vehicle body.
However, in forming a light distribution pattern having a cutline specific to the low beam with the configuration of conventional headlights, lens steps of an outer lens have an important role in the light distribution control. Therefore, the outer lens cannot be inclined from the vertical axis more than a certain limit. That is, the conventional configuration cannot properly accommodate the slant nose.
In view of the above, various types of headlights have been proposed to shift the light distribution control function, which conventionally belonged to the lens steps of the outer lens, to the reflector. That is, a reflecting surface is divided into a number of light distribution control sectors and their shapes are designed so that a combined pattern of projection patterns of the respective sectors approximates the standard light distribution pattern, to thereby reduce the load in the light distribution control imposed on the outer lens.
However, to produce the light distribution pattern having the cutline specific to the low beam by the conventional reflecting surface, the number of light distribution control sectors of the reflecting surface tends to increase. If the adjacent reflecting sectors are not connected smoothly, the light reflected by a step at the boundary goes upward to cause glare or becomes undesired light in terms of the light distribution control.